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KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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This Health Policy 101 chapter explores how health policy in the U.S. is linked to politics, with the direction of policy influenced by who is in power. Health care is often a major issue in political campaigns, and the chapter examines its potential role in elections, with a focus on current health issues that could impact the next election.
This brief examines the two presidential candidates’ records and other recent policy proposals that could inform starkly different directions for the program across key areas, including Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion, financing, eligibility, benefits, and cost-sharing, prescription drugs, long-term services and supports, and managed care.
This brief focuses on consumers’ understanding of health insurance costs and examines existing federal protections that seek to address barriers to understanding the cost of coverage and care, such as price transparency, self-service price estimator tools, and simplifying cost-sharing designs.
This analysis documents average deductibles for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans available on Healthcare.gov in 2026 for all metal tiers, including silver plans after cost-sharing reductions are applied, as well as trend data since 2014.
If enacted into law in its current form, and Congress takes no further action, [the House reconciliation bill's] increase in the deficit would trigger mandatory cuts, also known as sequestration, under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.
This brief analyzes 2024 Medicare Part D enrollment, premiums, and cost sharing. The analysis highlights the continued growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment in the Part D marketplace and substantially higher average monthly premiums for stand-alone Part D drug plan coverage. Changes to the Part D benefit included in the Inflation Reduction Act are helping to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients but could also contribute to higher-priced Part D coverage.
Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans rarely cover GLP-1 drugs approved solely for obesity treatment, according to a new KFF analysis of 2024 federal plan data.
With the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress looking to ways to reduce federal spending, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that the Medicare and Medicaid programs remain broadly popular, and more people favor more spending on those programs than less spending.
This brief provides an overview of the Medicare Advantage plans that are available for 2025 and key trends over time. The average Medicare beneficiary will have the option of 34 Medicare Advantage prescription drug (MA-PD) plans in 2025, 2 fewer than the 36 options available in 2024. The average Medicare beneficiary can choose among plans offered by 8 firms in 2025, the same as in 2024.
It’s quite likely that one of these popular anti-obesity medications will be selected for negotiation in the next round of Medicare’s relatively new drug price negotiation program.
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